Building for a sustainable future

Published: 27 November, 2013

The new Shadow Minister for Energy and Climate Change has praised the work of Wolseley UK’s Sustainable Building Center (SBC) in a visit to Leamington.

Jonathan Reynolds MP met with Plumb Center’s head of sustainability Tim Pollard and renewables director Simon Allan, to look at energy-efficient technologies in action and talk about the industry’s hot topics. He was appointed in October following a Labour reshuffle.

“I wanted to learn more about the technologies that are available and things we can use to live in a more sustainable way,” Mr Reynolds said. “The SBC is a fantastic place – probably the best place I know – to see some of that and learn about how those types of technologies work.

“You read a lot about different technologies, but seeing them here and getting the facts about what the running costs are, who they’re appropriate for, the kinds of things that are possible; it’s inspiring because we could be using a lot more of this.

“The energy efficiency area is full of people who are incredibly knowledgeable but also passionate about what they do, and they should be passionate because there are some tremendous things we could do if we just turned the political will to it and educate the public about it.

“There’s a lot of confusion. It’s sometimes not easy to access the right kind of advice but someone like Tim is the best person to ask. He knows his stuff and you can tell he cares about it, and he has the information that people really need.”

Mr Pollard added: “It was great to welcome Jonathan to the SBC. We discussed lots of ideas and it was very positive.

“The UK has the oldest and most inefficient building stock in Europe, and we’re always happy to talk about the best ways to power our homes, drive down energy bills and make everybody’s lives easier.”